Reliant Arena, Houston, Texas - Carlos Molina (19-5-2, 6KOs) was winning the fight, but lost a controversial ten round disqualification to James Kirkland (31-1, 27KOs) in a WBC final eliminator. At the time of the stoppage, Molina was ahead with scores of 88-83, 87-84 and the third judge had a terrible score of 86-85 for Kirkland.

Before the fight started, the HBO announcers told the television audience that there was some controversy where Kirkland had not submitted a urine test - despite several requests from the local commission.

Molina started fast in the first round, and he was outboxing, outhusting and outlanding Kirkland. As the rounds played out, Molina continued to smother Kirkland's power punches by holding him on the inside and he continued to outwork the stronger man.

Another key for Molina was his ability to find Kirkland with his punches. He was very accurate with his shots, while Kirkland was missing the vast majority of his power punches and spent too much time following Molina around.

In the tenth round, Kirkland seemed to change the entire fight with two big right hands and then he started working the body of Molina. For most of the round, Molina was holding and smothering Kirkland to hang on. At the end of the round, Kirkland scored a knockdown and the bell rang. One of Molina's cornermen entered the ring for a second, because the bell rang. The referee disqualified Molina because the cornerman entered and the crowd went crazy and so did the HBO announcers.

kirklands sucks, bunch of excuses by some of yall! you guys thought he was gonna win easy but he was getting hit cleanly, kirk just hype he couldnt beat molina convincingly, if he was that good he should of finished the fight easy

[QUOTE=aces725]That's why I can't stand boxing ... Unbelievable .. Molina gets disqualified because his trainer went in the ring for a split second ? Really?? Where was this bull**** ass rule when Roger mayweather stepped in the ring against zab?? .. Smh .. ****ing hypocrites .. Boxing is a fixed...

[QUOTE=bose]Great post, its all about influence.
Molina won this fight... sad that the ref (experienced at that) fumbled very badly.[/QUOTE]
not a great post and i will explain... the rules vary from state to state. in the state of texas entering the ring while the fight is in progress wil...

[QUOTE=TaurusJ27]Kirkland should've shaken that ref's hand for helping him steal a win.[/QUOTE]
and molina should have shaken the refs hand for allowing such flagrant rule breaking to go on unchecked. this ref was the worst ever.

[QUOTE=fvanesbeck]Molina's tactics were frustrating - particularly in the 8th when he had Kirkland on the ropes and he was visibly dazed but Molina kept holding instead of letting his hands go.
However, he was comfortably ahead and was probably gonna win the fight. I think that he truly expos...